Tuesday, July 5, 2011

[Comic title: YouTube Parties; alt text: This reminds me of that video where ... no? How have you not seen that? Oh man, let me find it. No, it's ok, we can go back to your video later.]

Randy, I am saying this as a friend: under no circumstances is it acceptable to acknowledge that you think YouTube parties are a thing with a sufficiently large following that you can just casually mention them on your illustrated picto-blag. Do you know what the problem with YouTube parties actually is? THEY ARE FUCKING TERRIBLE.

This comic is nothing more than a trite observation. I'm pretty sure about ninety-five percent of all jokes that have ever been told have been a variation of this one: "man I hate how when you're [talking to people/showing people YouTube videos] they're just waiting for their turn to [talk/show YouTube videos]." Well done, Randy, you've uncovered the universal human truth that people think that they are brilliant and dazzling, but really everyone else is too busy thinking they are brilliant to even notice that you're talking. (A very Randallian trait, but I digress.)

Apart from that, though, this comic is a real shocker--not because of its content, but because Randy, for the first time in ever, has made a post acknowledging that he didn't do the joke first. (Don't read the comments on that post. They are depressing.) He has a long history of making jokes which are worryingly similar to other comics, or very recent and highly popular Reddit threads, etc. It's always a comic that we know Randy reads, or Reddit, which is second only to Wikipedia as a substitution for ideas for darling Randall. And this is the internet. I'd be very surprised if every time this happens, Randy hasn't gotten emails noting the similarity.

So why has he suddenly decided to start noting when he accidentally ripped something off? I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and suggest that maybe he's turning over a new leaf and has decided to start doing the classy thing and say "from now on, just like every other webcomics person out there, when a similarity occurs between something I write and something someone else does, I will be cool about it and mention it with a link, instead of pretending it never happened." So let's keep an eye out for more of these. Maybe with time and dedication Randy will become a vaguely acceptable human being.

it's tough, isn't it? if I don't mention the comments, then people won't wonder what's so awful about them to make me warn people off about them. but if I don't mention them, people won't know that terrible things lurk beyond the link...

I theorize that Randy gave credit on this one and not others because he doesn't feel any guilt about this one. If he actually didn't intend to rip off Doghouse Diaries, he can post saying it was an honest mistake because it was. In the other situations, he knew good and well that he was ripping off other popular webcomics, which caused him to feel peripherally guilty. This guilt made it impossible for him to handwave it nonchalantly.

Did the guy leave a note for his own package? The figure is wearing a hood so I don't think it's the UPS guy (THANKS FOR THE CLEAR ART RANDALL), but that makes no fucking sense. If it were the UPS guy it would make sense, just be dull.

The hooded elf that was bringing the fellow his newly-reforged sword knocked on the door and didn't get a response so he stuck another collection note on the door over the original UPS one that was there.

So today's comic took me about 10 minutes and reading others' comments to understand. Does that make me an idiot, or xkcd an awfully set out comic?I didn't realise he had those notices on his door, probably because I read these comics casually (to mock later) and don't look for every little detail. It then follows that I missed the fact he had 2 on his door in the last panel. But as soon as it was pointed out to me, I guess the joke makes sense. Except explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog, no one really cares and it dies in the process. So perhaps if he's made the key points of this comic more obvious, it had the potential to be slightly amusing.Also, I got confused how someone going to the UPS building required elves to forge a sword, so I had no idea this sword was meant for him. In fact I thought this was leading to a series of comics about his quest and him opening the door at the end to the elf was something of a cliffhanger. Okay I've explained enough why I'm an idiot now.

I'm pretty sure this comic is supposed to be about Rob. He is implied to be so lazy and fat, that he stays home all day and doesn't even bother to open the door when his package arrives. He is also portrayed as the stereotypical nerd who jerks off to fantasy novels. Clearly, this is a declaration of war against xkcdsucks.

Ravenzomg: sorry, I removed the Star Wars reference. I know how much you like that shit.

Seriously though, it is better than the original, because it removes the crap, and makes it a simple joke about how the guy won't shut the fuck up and misses his package again. It's also a commentary on Randall's overuse of speech. It is sheer brilliance, and I should know, being its brilliant creator.

@cptnoremac, I found the same problem too. The context wasn't entirely clear from the start. Anyone who didn't read 'Delivery Notification' as the title, would find it hard to understand from the start.@Anons 12:40 and 6:54, that's an awful long time to wait just to link to TVTropes.

Anon522: Don't listen to Raven. She's wrong. Your edit fixes the two major problems with the strip (wordiness and an ambiguous punchline), and I actually ended up posting it on my review of 921. It's a good edit.

Also doesn't qualify as a brick joke, because he said, "Wait for it," indicating what his action would be. A brick joke is supposed to be a line that seems like a nonsequitur until a much later joke incorporates it long after everyone has forgotten about it. It was fairly obvious what you had set up and what you would do, and so it doesn't qualify as anything but idiotic.

I commend what Raven is attempting to do with the second half of her most recent post, and wish the effort luck. As everyone knows, editors exist only to fix spelling errors and correct grammar. The comic is lessened by any change to structure or wording, since this destroys the very thing which makes it 'art'. And XKCD is art, my friends. Art which sucks.

"Her immune system analyzes it for pathogens, and the next day she produces breast milk specially tailored to kill whatever the baby was crawling around in the day before."

"Q: Why did Douglas Hofstadter cross the road?A: To make this joke possible."

"Sure, someone's gender is usually obvious from their name, but there's no need to force people to draw extra attention to it—introducing myself with "Hi, I'm Randall." sends a different message from "Hi, I'm Randall, and I'm a MAN."

"It is ironic because my whole life I have felt uncomfortable with the nerd culture that centers on computers. I always hope my writings will resonate with people who love literature, art, and music. But instead, a large fraction of my audience seems to be those who are fascinated by technology and who assume that I am, too."-Douglas Hofstadter

"Pulitzer Prize-winning author and academic Douglas Hofstadter told the New York Times of his Wikipedia entry, "[it] is filled with inaccuracies, and it kind of depresses me." When asked why he didn't fix it, he replied, "The next day someone will fix it back.""

It doesn't bug me so much that Randall is saying idiot things like that; after all, there's no shortage of stupid people on the internet. What bothers me is that people, including the Google people, are taking him seriously.

What the hell is this?

Welcome. This is a website called XKCD SUCKS which is about the webcomic xkcd and why we think it sucks. My name is Carl and I used to write about it all the time, then I stopped because I went insane, and now other people write about it all the time. I forget their names. The posts still seem to be coming regularly, but many of the structural elements - like all the stuff in this lefthand pane - are a bit outdated. What can I say? Insane, etc.

I started this site because it had been clear to me for a while that xkcd is no longer a great webcomic (though it once was). Alas, many of its fans are too caught up in the faux-nerd culture that xkcd is a part of, and can't bring themselves to admit that the comic, at this point, is terrible. While I still like a new comic on occasion, I feel that more and more of them need the Iron Finger of Mockery knowingly pointed at them. This used to be called "XKCD: Overrated", but then it fell from just being overrated to being just horrible. Thus, xkcd sucks.

Here is a comic about me that Ann made. It is my favorite thing in the world.

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